Red Wings-Maple Leafs: Detroit GameDay

The Detroit Red Wings and the Toronto Maple Leafs meet this afternoon for the only time this season.

The Wings won the last meeting, 5-1 on December 9th, 2006 in Detroit. It is their first trip to Toronto since December 6th, 2003, when they lost 5-2.

Detroit leads the all-time series 274-272-93-0.

The puck drops at 3:00 ET.

Dan Marouelli and Dean Warren will officiate the game. David Brisebois and Greg Devorski will man the lines.

The Maple Leafs are 7-9-1 thus far in 2008, with five of those losses coming together from January 3rd to January 12th. They won their three games from January 15th to January 19th, but are 2-3-1 since. They lost to Washington, St. Louis, and Carolina (OT) before pulling out a win over the Senators on February 2nd.

Three nights later, they lost 8-0 to Florida, but they rebounded from that embarrassment with a 4-2 win over Montreal on the 7th.

The Leafs are last in the Northeast Division with 53 points and are 14th in the East. They are four points from last place in the League.

The Globe and Mail reports that Alex Steen (shoulder) will return this afternoon. Bryan McCabe (broken hand) returned to the lineup Thursday. Nik Antropov will be free to return from a three-game suspension.

Former Red Wing Boyd Devereaux has seven goals and nine assists. McCabe has just four goals and eight assists. Niklas Kronwall's brother, Staffan, has zero points over ten games and hasn't played since December 4th.

Although the Leafs have struggled greatly this season, a win in the media storm in Toronto on Hockey Day in Canada would be definite boost to the Wings as they head into another big prestige game tomorrow.

For the Leafs, a win over the top team in the league would be huge for team morale.

The Wings were embarrassed Thursday night—and that should not bode well for Toronto, as Detroit will be looking to rebound in a big way.

This is definitely one of those days where I wish I was at home in the Detroit area rather than here in West Michigan where CBC is not offered.